Natural Resources committee  That's correct. Just think of it this way. The industry--oil sands plus conventional oil and gas--is investing $55 billion a year now, and there are 3.3 million people in Alberta. So that number of dollars coming into a province with such a little labour pool drives inflation. Th

Natural Resources committee  Oh, absolutely. Just look to Newfoundland and, I would say, Saskatchewan--and Manitoba now. Their investment is growing quite dramatically in both of those provinces as well.

Natural Resources committee  We have done some research. There is a relationship between the price of oil and the Canadian dollar, but we should not forget that Canada has a resource-heavy economy, including agriculture, in which prices are up. Metals and all of those things have a contributing factor for th

Natural Resources committee  The answer is yes. That's why I'm concerned about the inflation issue.

Natural Resources committee  It's just a simple recommendation. The federal and provincial governments and industry together I think have to work at a fairly quick pace to expand market access to our oil and gas commodities off the west coast to international markets. I'll repeat the number. We generate $1

Natural Resources committee  No.

Natural Resources committee  Yes.

Natural Resources committee  It would affect the returns, which would affect the ability to bring capital in, which would affect growth, which would affect jobs.

Natural Resources committee  I don't have much to add; I think Mr. Marushack answered it.

Natural Resources committee  I presume you're also talking about the upgrading and refining into higher-value products. We do quite a bit of that, but that is a much more complex question because there are issues of being close to market. I only highlight it at the very upstream end. Just to give you a coupl

Natural Resources committee  I agree with everything Mr. Marushack said about the fiscal regime. I also agree with him about the labour, except for one thing, and that is that I think it's an immediate problem. I don't think this is a solved problem that spans 50 years. I think you're going to see inflation

Natural Resources committee  I'm not an expert on cross-cultural issues. I can just tell you that the world is becoming more global. Other countries in the world--like Australia, which is also very resource-rich--are very active in dealing with the Chinese and other countries. It's not exclusively the Chines

Natural Resources committee  Yes, absolutely. The global prices are higher than the continental prices.

Natural Resources committee  I can speak to British Columbia. It's pretty high. The natural gas business—I have the numbers here—is substantial. It's about 37% of the $100 billion in revenues, so it's $37 billion. A large fraction of that is in Alberta, but it's expanding more into B.C. The important thing

Natural Resources committee  Sure. It's already coming. In the last 18 months, $17 billion worth of foreign capital has come into Canada that is not from the United States or Europe. In 2010 alone, there was $10 billion, most of which was directed toward the oil sands. The oil and gas industry, because it i